Biblical Studies. Congratulations to
Peter Oakes, currently Professor of New Testament, who has just been appointed to the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis. This prestigious Chair was established in 1904 at the same time as the establishment of the Faculty of Theology in what was then the Victoria University of Manchester. Enriqueta Rylands established the
John Rylands Library in her husband’s name,
and she also endowed the Rylands Chair which was to combine higher and lower criticism. The holder of the chair has
normally been involved in the oversight of teaching and research in
Biblical Studies in the Department. There have been seven distinguished previous holders of the Chair to date, who were scholars in fields related to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the New Testament, or both: A.S. Peake, C.H. Dodd, T.W. Manson, F.F. Bruce, B. Lindars SSF, C.M. Tuckett, and
G.J. Brooke; Professor Brooke retired in 2016 and the Chair has remained vacant since then. This appointment reflects the global reputation of Peter's research, which contextualizes the New Testament through new insights on historical economics and the archaeological evidence of social structures.
